Page 109 of Courtside

His smile was reassuring. “You’re almost there,” he said, rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand. “Should we, ah, well, should we have a conversation about next year?”

“Sure.” She forced herself to swallow against the nervousness that burned in her throat like acid. “What about it?”

A few moments lapsed before David spoke. “Are you planning on leaving?”

“No.” She watched David’s shoulders drop as his head tilted back and his eyes shut. “Unless you don’t want me to stay?” Sage dropped her gaze down to the brick in front of them. “I don’t want to assume, but I’m going to stay in Charleston. Even if you told me you wanted to be done with this — with us — I’d still want to stay.”

“No!” David pulled them to a stop. “I’d love it if you stayed.” He flashed her a soft smile. “I’m nowhere near done with this.”

Sage searched his brown eyes for a moment. She remembered that first night in the bar, searching his eyes then and finding nothing but warmth and sincerity there. Now she could easily identify affection, and maybe, if she wasn’t imagining it, something more.

David had one of her canvas bags over one shoulder, overflowing with the produce she’d picked out. In his free hand he held a full bouquet of yellow tulips. He’d insisted on picking the one with the most buds so that she’d get the chance to enjoy them longer.

Yeah. There was no fucking way she was leaving him any time soon.

“That’s good,” Sage finally said, only to be interrupted by Daisy tugging at her leash, obviously annoyed that they’d paused. She heard David let out one of those low, warm chuckles that sounded like real maple syrup, and she leaned into him.

It felt good, for just a second, to lean on him.

* * *

Sage slipped into her blue blazer as she walked into the Summit High School athletic building. The facility was obviously new, built with blue-gray stone and steel details, impressive enough to make the Humphrey Center look like an ancient relic.

She had an interview for afuckingcoaching job.

She’d gotten the call on a Monday afternoon just as she was leaving a group project meeting in the library. It was the head coach of Summit High School’s girl’s basketball team, and he was looking for an assistant who would also coach the JV team. He also mentioned that the school was hiring English tutors, if that would be something she was interested in.

As soon as he hung up she’d jumped in the air like a little kid on Christmas morning. If she got the job, she’d have enough work to make a living, and, after only a minute of research, she learned that the team was good. Likereallygood. Two appearances in the state final in the last five years kind of good.

She’d immediately called David, who was recruiting in D.C.. He’d congratulated her, even though he’d seemed a bit less enthusiastic than she thought he’d be. He was probably just tired from all of the travel, she rationalized.

She’d taken extra time getting ready for her interview — going for the full suit, low heels, and pulling her hair back into a high ponytail. As David called it, the “power pony.”

She really, really wanted the job.

She wanted it so badly that she’d already caught herself looking up blazers in the team colors — navy and white. She’d already started combing through her notebook from the season, imagining crafting a speech for her first team meeting.

She wasn’t trying to get ahead of herself, but after years of not knowing whatthe next thing was, having the clarity of purpose put a new fire in her veins. After all of the emails from her mom and meetings with her advisor, after floundering anytime someone asked about her future, she finally knew what she was going to do.

Coach Michael Atkinson was a lean man around Sage’s height, with a soft smile and a strong handshake. He walked her through the gym, showing off the state of the art facility on the way to his office. He was dynamic and charismatic, and his commitment to the girls in his program was obvious based on how he talked about them. All of his varsity players were playing year round on club teams, and many of them were on their way to being college players. It was an elite program with all of the resources a high school team could ever ask for.

Once they reached his office, Sage sat in the leather-backed chair in front of the desk while Michael settled in. “I’ve got to be honest with you,” he said, leaning back in his chair with his hands clasped behind his head. “When David texted me about you, I wasn’t sure what to think about taking on someone so green.”

It felt like her organs had dropped right out of her body plummeting into the earth. Sage forced herself to speak. “I’m sorry, did you say that David spoke with you?”

Michael smiled. “Yeah, he told me that you were looking to get into coaching after completing your masters. He’s an old friend and a great coach, and I trust his judgment. After he vouched for you and talked about what you’d done for them over at Southeastern, I knew I wanted to bring you in.”

She said something in response, but the part of her brain that was conscious of events in the immediate moment was completely offline. She must have continued to form words that made some sort of sense, because she sat in that chair for another half an hour before she registered Michael offering her the job. The tutoring would be a conversation with another department, but he’d take care of it all. According to him, she was a shoo-in.

“May I think about it?” Those words she was aware of forming.

Michael looked surprised, but quickly recovered. “Of course. Get back to us in the next week.”

“Thank you.” Sage tried to smile as she stood up and extended her hand.

“We’d love to have you,” Michael replied.

She was sure that her expression was faltering. “It’s a really amazing opportunity,” she said, her voice sounding hollow even to her own ears. “Thank you so much for considering me.”

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